Academy-Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis as Prospero, the noted actor John Douglas Thompson as the legendary Louis Armstrong, a play based on the exploits of newspaper correspondent and Presidential confidante Dorothy Thompson and a tragi-comedy penned by an Executive Producer for the television comedies, "Two and a Half Men" and "Mike and Molly," are among the highlights of the 2012 season at Shakespeare & Company as announced by Artistic Director Tony Simotes on January 10.
This year marks the 35th anniversary season for the Lenox, MA, company, said Simotes, who was a Founding Member of the company. "From the perspective of someone who witnessed first hand the beginnings of our Company," he continued, "it is astonishing to look back at what we've achieved. I am proud to say that we are at the forefront of actor training and education programs in terms of objective and scope, and that we've compiled a riveting and daring list of productions this season that not only reflect the best of what Shakespeare & Company has to offer, but will take us to the next level."
Simotes himself will be directing Dukakis and her brother, Apollo, in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," starting in July. Dukakis has known many members of the company, including Simotes, for over three decades, having first served as their instructor at NYU. The production will be set circa 1940 with Dukakis playing her first Prospero and Shakespeare & Company Founding Member Rocco Sisto as Caliban.
OBIE award winning actor John Douglas Thompson will return to the Company this season after a one-year hiatus to star as Louis Armstrong in a new one-man show, "Satchmo at the Waldorf," by the Wall Street Journal's well-respected theater critic Terry Teachout, which will be directed by Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director of New Haven's Long Wharf Theater. Teachout has written what many consider to be the definitive biography of Armstrong, "Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong." "Satchmo at the Waldorf" is his first play and focuses on Armstrong's reminiscences as he prepares for will be his last public performance at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel's Empire Room in May of 1971.
Director Rebecca Holderness will set a new production of Shakespeare's "King Lear" in 1906 Russia, with the country on the verge of revolution as the monarchy begins to crumble. "Setting "Lear" in Russia at this time puts the family struggle into a political context," explains Holderness. "It's a contemporary time setting but has the same ritual deepness of an ancient culture." Founding Member and Director of Training Dennis Krausnick will play the role of the foolish king who mistakes flattery for genuineness and causes an entire kingdom to fall.
The mainstage season will also include a hit from last summer's Studio Festival of Plays, "Endurance" by the Split Knuckle Theatre, which ties the historical story of Sir Ernest Shakleton who kept 27 men alive in the Antarctic for two years, to the life of a Hartford insurance executive struggling to save his employees' jobs 95 years later.
Finally, the mainstage will welcome back for two weekends in early July Founding Member Susan Dibble for her dance event "Dibbledance" featuring members of her company and a number of S&Co artists.
The Elayne P. Bernstein Theater schedule will include John Logan's "Red," a look at artist Mark Rothko at the height of his fame and creativity in New York in the late 1950's, with Jonathan Epstein as Rothko under the direction of Company member Kevin Coleman. Tod Randolph will star as journalist Thompson, the first correspondent to be expelled from Nazi Germany under direct order from Adolf Hitler, in Norman Plotkin's play, "Cassandra Speaks."
Also at the Bernstein Theatre will be Mark Roberts' "Parasite Drag", written by Mark Roberts, who served for six seasons as an Executive Director for the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" and for the network's newest hit "Mike and Molly." Steve Rothman will direct the play, which tells of the story of two brothers dealing with their drug-addicted sister who is dying of AIDS in what is described as a "hard-hitting tragi-comedy." Charles Busch's comedy "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" will round out the season at the Bernstein, with veteran funny man Jon Croy directing Annette Miller in the title role.
An energetic ensemble of S&Co artists and interns will perform Moliere's "Tartuffe the Imposter," in the Rose Footprint Theatre on the S&Co grounds and the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence will highlight the festivities on the Fourth of July.
For more information about the upcoming season at Shakespeare & Company, a performance calendar, group packages or to purchase tickets online, visit the company's website (www.shakespeare.org) on or after February 14.
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